Story:
The anime is like a detective story, where the MC, with the help of different leads, received or not received at the end of each story/arc that he experiences during his wanderings, tries to find the "killer" and fulfill, in his opinion, his duty. The action takes place in Germany in the 80s and 90s.
The narration is measured, and although it does not make you sleepy, I often wish it was faster.
Step by step, the MC, of which there are several, is approaching his goal, gaining new connections or making enemies for himself. Usually, the viewer is shown the development of the story of only one of the main characters at a time.
Some arcs generally do without the participation of the main characters in the beginning.
I would describe the story itself as depressing and emotional at times, but quite realistic. There were only a few moments when I strongly doubted the possibility of what was happening (for example, how a certain character calmly walked the streets of Germany, meanwhile being wanted). Of course, everything can be explained, but usually it turns out to be far-fetched.
The anime features some important historical events with a mix of fictional events. These events entail all sorts of consequences and create unique characters that later intersect with each other in different sequences and move the plot forward.
It is also worth noting that the story raises several philosophical questions: are all lives equal, does everyone deserve redemption, and towards the end it tell us why humans are special and why one must continue to live no matter what.
To my great regret, in my opinion, the authors managed to spoil the end of the story a lot, as if turning it into meaningless from the very beginning.
Overall, I would rate the story 5.5/10. Aside from the ending of the story, I'd give it a solid 9/10. What a pity.
Art:
The drawing is well done: the background, details, colors, characters - everything is at a high level. The authors, in my opinion, did convey the atmosphere of those years. The style was chosen close to realism, which certainly suits this genre. For the whole work, I saw only a few oversights in terms of drawing. Lipstick marks on a cigarette, characters hair growth over time, even such details are taken into account. In my opinion, the drawing deserves an 8/10 rating.
The animation is also very good. Although you won’t find such action scenes as in some shonens here (duh), all movements look natural, that is, the animation is of high quality. The facial animation is fine, although there was one case where the character spoke without opening his mouth. I can give 8/10 here too.
And just to think that this anime was created back in 2004 and it is quite long. Well done.
Sound:
The musical accompaniment is very meager, it consists of only 3-4 compositions, even if they are good ones. 5/10.
I have no comment on the sound effects. They do not cause negative feelings, but there is nothing to praise them for. 5/10.
I liked the voice acting. Emotions are conveyed well, the voices are adequately chosen, except that in a couple of children they a little bit stand out in a bad way. If you've watched any of the "Big three" then you'll definitely recognize someone. 8/10.
Characters:
We have a huge number of secondary, but at the same time interesting characters with their own stories behind their backs. Somewhere they converge in characters, but, nevertheless, remain unique, as it works in real life.
The protagonist, as I mentioned, is not the only one here. We can see the internal struggle of these characters, their constant development from beginning to end.
Tenma, who is behind the plot of the story of this anime, at first is a brilliant, but naive and weak-willed person, but after the events he has experienced, he changes quite a lot.
Actions of MCs and SCs do not contradict their characters.
However, I was very disappointed with the "killer", or to be more precise, his motivation and goal.
For the characters, their depth, motives, uniqueness, I will give 8/10. If not for the killer, the rating would be 10.
Enjoyment:
Many of the stories were very interesting, but not all. Every time important figures crossed over, I got goosebumps. However, this is a story of slow burnout: you are curious about what will happen next, but you do not have enough patience for a slow narrative. And that feeling was killing me all the time. Very disappointing ending and the killer are still there. I'm definitely not going to rewatch it anytime soon. In total, I can only give 6/10.
Total score:
Since I value enjoyment above other parameters, because we watch/read different works for the sake of it in the first place, and it is quite strongly influenced by the end of the story, I will rate this work only for 6/10 - "Fine".
From a technical point of view, everything is very good, majority of the characters are interesting and I liked most of them, but I didn’t like the ending so much, I found it so unworthy of everything that was in the anime before it, that I can’t put it higher than "Fine". This is by no means a bad anime, clearly better than most out here, but I can’t call it good for reasons I described, nor can I confidently recommend it to everyone.
To understand why I hated the ending, see the "Comments" under this anime in my anime list, because these are big spoilers. For possible errors in the text I apologize, English is not my native language.
